Currents of History 3/2018
Srđan MILOŠEVIĆ
Institute for Recent History of Serbia
srdjan.milosevic@inis.bg.ac.rs
The Role of the Yugoslav Popular Front in Implementing Communist-Style Measures in Yugoslav Rural Areas (1945–1953)[1]
Abstract: After World War II, the Yugoslav Popular Front (PF) developed extensive activity in the rural areas of Yugoslavia, following the line set by the ruling Communist Party (CPY). It was only from 1948/49 that the Party itself emerged from the rear into the front line of the struggle for the “socialist reconstruction of rural areas”. Due to the fact that the issues concerning the policy of the Yugoslav Government toward the peasantry had played an important role in the breakup between Yugoslavia and the USSR (1948), both the PF and the CPY intensified their activities in the rural areas and among the peasantry, in order to disprove the Soviet accusations. In this article, the author examines the sources and documents (both published and archival) produced on the highest (federal) level of the PF organization. These kinds of sources are characterized by a top-bottom perspective, a predominance of political assessments, ideological instructions, and summarized data, which predetermined the descriptive character of the research results. In conclusion, the author emphasizes that the PF played a mostly ideological and motivational role in popularizing the government's measures, having been taken toward the “socialist reconstruction of the rural areas.” Throughout the entire period covered by this article, this role was fulfilled waywardly, with numerous examples of misunderstandings, ideological aberrations, misconduct and distortion, both in pursuing and in avoiding decisions and orders of the government.
Key words: Yugoslavia, Socialism, Yugoslav Popular Front, Peasantry, Rural Areas, Communists
Summary
The National Front of Yugoslavia was the most important organization for spreading the influence and implementing the policy of the CPY. The role of this organization was particularly important in rural areas because of its more comprehensive political structure, in view of the fact that rudimentary forms of capitalist commodity production had survived in the rural environment and also because Party membership among farmers was less massive than among workers. After the Informbiro Resolution in 1948, the role of the CPY became much more visible, but the People's Front organization in the rural areas was not neglected.
In a political sense, the key tasks of the People's Front were focused on the class struggle, while in the domain of contributing to the socialist reconstruction of rural areas, its mission was mainly concentrated on promoting the agrarian-political measures prescribed by the government, or rather, the Party. First of all, this included the cooperatives, the implementation of agro-technical measures, and cooperation between the private and socialist sector in the production process. No less importantly, the People's Front was supposed to be the mainstay of the alliance of workers and peasants, which was the key adage in the post-war phase of developing socialist relations.
The results of the People's Front in fulfilling its tasks were judged ambiguously: despite expressed acclaim, which prevailed on appropriate occasions, basically there was dissatisfaction among the party leaders with its achieved results. In actual fact, without clearly defined tasks or work methods, this organization, intended to rally the masses and direct the activity of the population, was not able to achieve any greater success, and its significance diminished with time.
[1] This article is a contribution to the project Transition and transformation, No 47019, financed by the Ministry for education, science and technological development of the Republic of Serbia.